Download Homer`s The Odyssey

Homer’s
The Odyssey
Background Notes
Who is Homer?
No, not Homer Simpson…
•An Ancient blind poet
•The “bard” who composed
the Iliad and the Odyssey
between 900 and 700 B.C.
• Homer did not compose
each epic all at once: he
told them in a series of
short episodes that could
be recited in an evening.
• Editors, not Homer himself,
organized the epics in 24
books.
What exactly is an
Epic?
The Epic…
•A long narrative poem
that tells the adventures
of a hero
•Used to teach virtues of
a civilization
Characteristics of an Epic
• A physically impressive hero (usually
famous)
• A quest or journey
• A vast setting involving much of the known
physical world
• Descent of the hero into the underworld
• Supernatural Forces
• Glorification of the hero at the end
Famous Epics from Around the World
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Iliad and Odyssey
Gilgamesh
Aeneid
Song of Roland
Divine Comedy
Mahabharata, Ramayana
Sundiata
Greece
Sumeria
Rome
France
Italy
India
Mali
Heroes During Homer’s Time
• Heroes were a special class of
aristocrats, in between gods and
ordinary human beings.
• No matter what pain they may
have experienced, they always
displayed CONFIDENCE .
The Iliad
• Setting: 10th year of the Trojan War
Greeks vs. Trojans
• Theme: War
• Important Characters:
– Helen, the “face that launched a thousand
ships.”
– Menelaus, Helen’s Greek Husband
– Paris, the prince of Troy
• Climax: Trojan Horse (Odysseus’s idea)
The Odyssey
• Setting: 10 years after the end of the
Trojan War
• Theme: A Long Journey
• A Hero In trouble:
– Odysseus, a Greek soldier trying to find his
way home to Ithaca
– People of Ithaca have forgotten about him
– His war-hero status is not important anymore
“In Medias Res”
• Means: “In the middle of a
sequence of events”
• The Odyssey does not begin at
the beginning; it starts with
Telemachus at 20 years old
trying to figure out what to do
about his missing dad.